.nyc solo trip .10.13.16.

The morning of my 23rd birthday I landed in New York; well technically I actually landed in Newark, sooo same-same, but different! I roamed around the airport for a while trying to find the "express bus" that I had read about online. After roaming around for about half an hour dragging my suitcases behind me in a "train"; I decided to make a Dunkin Doughnuts pit stop and stock up on some pumpkin spiced goods for my journey to Manhattan. I noticed a girl about my age making the same circles around the airport as me, we teamed up together and found a train that would take us straight to Madison square garden! Score! Ironically it was right next to the gate that I had flown into. We visited while waiting for the train to come, she was also travelling to New York alone for the first time to meet up with some friends! We made plans to try to meet up later on but nothing panned out.

I'd tried out some new curlers before leaving to the airport, but sadly my hair didn't stay curly. I tossed my hair up into a very greasy looking 90's inspired half pony for the duration of the train ride. 

When I made it to Manhatten I headed straight for Schwartz Luggage Storage. My airbnb host wasn't able to let me into the apartment until later in the evening so storing my luggage was my best option. The storage place was about 5 blocks away from the train station, 7 if you count all the wrong turns I made. By time I had drug my suitcases all that way my feet were on FIRE! Another thing I overlooked when planning this trip was the temperature; I was planning for crisp fall air and what I got was humid, sweltering warm ocean air. I ditched my uggs with my suitcases for the day and headed out (in sock feet) to find the nearest shoe store.

4 stores, a pair of new shoes, and a selfie stick later I was on my way to the south side of the island. I bought a 7 day long unlimited subway "metro card" scanned myself through the gate and was on my way! On the adgenda; Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 memorial and the One World Observatory.

I hopped on the train and began to people watch, There is no phone service when you're on the train so it gets quite boring after a while. There was a family with 3 small sons, who looked like they could be triplets, and a older daughter; they were also heading to the ferry. I watched from a far while the boys played airplanes and climbed all over their mom chattering about how excited they were to go on a ferry! The older sister menacingly would tassel her brother(s) hair, or jump in on the airplane game playing the "terrorist plane" that made her brothers crash -- how american of them.

I had made my first trip on the subway successfully!! I walked out of the station into the street, naively thinking that the ferry would be right outside. Alas it wasn't. I started walking towards the ocean when a man selling tickets for the Water Taxi approached me, being the gullible young woman I am I fell straight into their marketing. I am not very good at telling people no, it makes me very uncomfortable especially when face to face with them. I got my ticket to the taxi and walked up the harbor to get in line for the next boat, as I walked up I recognized the family I had been people watching on the train. Surprisingly the mom from the train recognized me and immediately started chatting with me when I walked up!!

The water taxi ended up being a much better choice, it circled more of the classic New York sites; plus you could hop on and off as you please! I chose to stay on the boat and ride around the loop twice, this way I got enough time to truly take in the beautiful sights along the way. Lady Liberty seemed so much smaller then I had expected, next to the city skyline she looked tiny!! It wasn't until I was right in front of the statue that the magnitude of it really showed. I would have loved to go on the tour where you can walk up inside the statue but alas it was booked for months in advance. Next time!!

 **** I look away from the camera in pictures because I don't often like my face in pictures. Instead of bothering people to take a million pictures till I'm happy with how I look, I face away from the camera. It's more mysterious that way anyways****

While on the Water Taxi I realized that my selfie stick wasn't working. I fumbled with it trying to take some pictures but it wouldn't work. I leaned over and asked the ladies sitting next to me if they wouldn't mind trying the selfie stick on their phone to see if it was just a problem with my own phone. Unfortunately my selfie stick was junk. As I was putting my selfie stick in the garbage one of the ladies offered me her old selfie stick, how kind!! The boat was pretty crowded so I opted to have my picture taken rather then trying to take a good picture with my selfie stick.

**My Selfie-stick Ladies**

Next I was off to the 9/11 memorial. I slowly strolled along the streets, taking in the sight of the beautiful buildings with the warm, sunset lighting. The 9/11 memorial was absolutely stunning.

Since the sun was beginning to set I decided to go up to the
"One World Observatory"

The elevator up to the observatory had TV screens for the walls, while you traveled up they showed a time-lapse of the Manhattan skyline. It was incredible to see the transformation of the city over the years. I strolled around the deck watching the sun slowly set and the street lights begin to glow. There was a musician playing that night, I sat down to listen to him play while watching the city start to come alive as the darkness set in.

I absolutely loved the city lights. I love the way they light up the dark sky, twinkling with the stars above. I facetimed my family to show them the incredible view. When it was time to go I rode the elevator up and down one more time before leaving, that way I could watch the building of Manhattan once more. After picking up my luggage I walked a few blocks over to the train station, I drug my suitcases down the steps of the subway entrance only to realize I was on the wrong side of the platform. Back up the stairs I went, up to the street to look around for the "uptown" entrance to the train. For being my first time using the NYC subway system I'd say only making 1 mistake the entire day is pretty darn good!

My airbnb for the first 3 nights was a quaint little apartment on West 55th and 8 ave. It was perfect!! My host gave me the rundown of the rules and handed me the keys. I was pretty much starving at this point so I decided to head back towards times square to go to Junior's. My mom had heard about their famous cheesecake and insisted that I go there for my "Solo Birthday Dinner". When I got there the place was absolutely packed!! Luckily I got a spot at the bar right away and quickly ordered--- as you can tell I dove in on the cheesecake before remembering to take a picture for my mom! ...Whoops!

While I was sitting enjoying my dinner a couple came and sat beside me at the bar. The gentlemen turned to me and asked if the cheesecake was any good, my cheeks were completely full of cheesecake so I gave them a big thumbs up and smiled. I probably had cheesecake all over my teeth because the couple immediately started giggling. We ended up visiting for almost 2 hours, they were so sweet and friendly; they even offered to pay for my meal since it was my birthday! Before saying goodbye we snapped a quick selfie, I do so love meeting friendly strangers.

It was about 1 am at this point, but I wanted to see times square at night so I decided to take the long way home and roam around the bright lights. Times square is incredible at night, the screens are so bright that it looks like daylight, it's so amazing.

I went to the iconic TKTS booth to see where I would need to get in line for Broadway tickets the next day when I was approached by many strange people. The first lady who approached me had a baby in a stroller, she was clearly on drugs and asking for money while her husband was walking around asking other people for money. In an effort to not seem rude and upset her I changed the subject to her daughter, who had just began to wake up. The woman quickly swiped up her little girl and walked away angrily calling me a selfish *beep* and spitting at me. At this point I was starting to get nervous, so I began walking away. I looking at my phone to figure out how to get home, when I was approached by another pedestrian. He had seen the woman lash out at me and came to see if I was alright. He was carrying a bible so I assumed he was probably a decent person who wasn't going to mug me. He asked if he could walk me to my train station and tell me a little about god, I obliged hoping that the station was close and I could get home to the safety of my airbnb. He started to tell me that he was a man called of god to preach to the TKTS stairs, they were his "congregation", I politely nodded and smiled as he went on. Then I noticed that he was leading me away from the main square, away from the lights... I immediately stopped and told him I needed to go when he grabbed my arms. He started to tell me that he believed that god had sent me to him, to be his wife. I laughed, and tried to wiggle my arms out of his grasp. He squeezed just a little tighter and pulled me closer to him, I was starting to panic now and desperately wanted to be anywhere else. I lightly tried to push him away when suddenly he started leaning in!! I turned my head right at the last second, his mouth hit my cheek completely open, tongue wiggling. I screamed as loud as I could and with all my might pushed him away. I started running back to the lights when I looked back someone was running after me, yelling at me to wait. It was another pedestrian who had followed me (and the creepy pastor), he supposedly wanted to see if I was okay, to see if the man had hurt me. I quickly told him I was fine and I slipped down the nearest subway entrance. I waited until I was sure both of those creeps were gone then I quickly walked up the stairs put my hood up and walked as fast as I could back to my airbnb.

Needless to say I needed a shower. I scrubbed my face until it was almost raw, then wrapped my hair in my new Curlformers before collapsing into bed.

It wasn't a very comfortable sleep...

**** Step count 27,701 ****

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.21.16.

While researching things to do in Montana, I came across the Whitefish Mountain Resort

website. They had tons of off season activities going on, including zip lining, alpine slide, downhill mountain biking, and my personal favorite, a suspended "adventure park"!! I had done an adventure park course in Revelstoke the previous summer and was so excited to try one again! 

When we woke up I called the mountain resort to book us a time to go ziplining!! It was K's first time I was so excited for her to experience ripping through the mountains hanging from a wire, there really is nothing like it! 

While K cooked breakfast I took advantage of the fresh water connection and flushed out all of the water tanks in the van. The previous owner had left some water in the tanks and it did not smell very good! Being new to this whole "RV ownership" stuff I searched for about an hour for the grey water dump valve, and the fresh water fill connection. After finally finding the connections I hooked up the water to the van, not totally thinking straight I started filling the hose before unraveling it.

I turned my back for one second and the hose erupted out of the plastic casing. Having no idea what just happened, I dropped to the ground ducking in cover from the imminent danger! As I slowly got out of the fetal position, surveying my surroundings to figure out what had happened; I noticed that my neighbors had been watching the whole time and were now hysterically laughing at my reaction. I smiled and waved at my audience as I stood up, brushing the dirt and gravel off of me. 

Over breakfast I told K about what had happened outside while she was cooking! After we finished breakfast we packed everything up to head up to the mountain. I had noticed earlier that the windows weren't rolling down, but didn't think much of it. When I started the van and began driving, I realized that all of my gauges weren't working!! A quick call to the dad's and we determined that we probably just blew a fuse. The trip just got a little more interesting, the only indication of how fast we were going was my GPS which only displays your speed some of the time. We also had no clue how much fuel we had... Let the adventure again! 

We stopped at the local Safeway to get some Starbucks for the drive and headed up the mountain! The clouds were gathering early in they day while I was messing around with the water tanks, and by time we were heading to go ziplining they began to get really dark... No matter, the adventure must continue! When we got to the ski hill and were pleasantly surprised that our "Zip instructor" was super cute!! We suited up and took a few pictures while waiting to go ziplining! 

Unfortunately it began to rain as soon as we began zipping! Rain drops hurt when you're zipping through the air at 70km/h, they pelt you like pieces of hail! On the first few zip lines We had to shield our faces from the rain drops! Luckily the rain slowed down and we were able to enjoy the beautiful views of the whitefish resort mountain. The rain turned the rocks a beautiful green and burgundy, K and I were fascinated by the rocks and kept " ohhh, ahhh" -ing at the beautiful rocks! 

Check out this ACTION VIDEO, of K and I enjoying the rain at lighting fast speeds!! Featuring our super handsome zip guide guy and our equally as awesome zip guide girl!! 

While we were picking out these fantastic professional pictures, Jeremy; our zip guide guy, came and asked for K's number. I nudged her arm, it's not everyday cute mountain men ask for your number; you have to take advantage of these moments! 

After zipping in the cold for hours we went back to the van and cooked some grilled cheese and creamy tomato soup, cause what else do you eat when you're cold?!? We laughed at our pictures and gabbed about how much fun we just had. The plan was to go back and do the "adventure park" for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately they had closed early for the day due to the rain. So we chose to go look around some more American stores in Kalispell, that would get us out of the rain for a bit! I have really missed target since they chose to abandon us in Canada, so I was more then happy to spend an evening looking around at all the "Pinterest worthy" decor! 

Later on that evening we met up with Jeremy for some dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, there was a few football games on while we were there so we were surrounded by screaming fans. We sat and visited for a while before deciding to go back to Jeremy's place and hangout with him and his brother! We visited for hours before K and I had get going to our campsite, we bid our new mountain men friends adieu and headed down to flat head lake! The drive was gorgeous, there's just something about town lights at night that makes everything look so peaceful. The glow of the street lights on the water was absolutely beautiful, I stared out the window while K drove us to our campsite. 

Unfortunately the gate to where we were going to camp for the night was closed, so we found the nearest church and camped there for the night. Ah the luxury of camper vans. Park anywhere and climb up into bed.

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.20.16.

The bed above the captains chairs in Bea is slightly smaller then the one in Martha was. There's much less head space so if you wake up abruptly you will most likely smack your head off the roof!! Nonetheless it was comfy cozy. I had put a spare memory foam on the mattress and we had lots of blankets to nest in.

The sun streaming through the windows slowly woke us up, I'd opened the blinds overnight because I was too warm in my nest. The air was crisp and a slight fog covered the ground, K and I put on our matching new plaid jackets and set out to roam the campsite. As we strolled along a cute little chihuahua came running up to me, she was slightly bigger then Tia but had the same coloring; her name was Arizona. Her owners stopped to chat with us, I told them about my two girls and we swapped stories about our chihuahua's. They were surprised that Arizona had so quickly warmed up to me, apparently she's usually quite timid! I explained that she probably just smelled the girls on my clothes, but truthfully I am a closet dog whisperer. After chatting for a while about the gorgeous campground and nearby hikes, the couple offered for me and K to borrow their kayaks to explore around the lake!! How extremely kind and generous of them, we graciously accepted their offer.

The lake was a gorgeous turquoise color, the sun was shinning and the only sound was the distance hum of fishing boats out for the morning catch. It was beautiful. We stayed out paddling for almost 2 hours before coming back to visit with our friendly camping neighbors. After an hour of listening to stories about their travels across the states we bid our new friends adieu.


It's so wonderful meeting new people and hearing about their travels. One of my favorite parts of camping is you are surrounded by a lot of like minded, very friendly people who love to sit and visit for a while; one of my favorite pastimes.


Next we headed into Eureka to get some much needed brunch! My friend from work had also recommended a "mom and pop shop" in town that had great breakfast, Cafe Jax !

We got milkshakes with our breakfast, because when you're on vacation; calories don't count!! Cafe jax was filled with history from the small town of Eureka. The walls were covered in signatures and old photographs, it was truly a classic American diner! K and I basked in the small town atmosphere and decided to explore around the town a little more instead of going on a hike like we planned.

We walked up and down main street stopping in every store and admiring the "false front" historic buildings. We loved that all the stores were in these old-fashioned buildings, it gave the small town such character. Antiqued false front buildings, adorable decor shops, the beautiful colors of fall and the crisp mountain air mixed with warm glowing sunshine, I was truly in my happy place. 

 

After hours of strolling around Eureka we decided to head into Kalispell to do some more window shopping. We were pleasantly surprised to find another "Historic" Main Street! Again we strolled up and down the street, stopping in every store and gushing over the treasures each one held. The shops were so diverse; decor, knitting, thrift stores, western wear, antique's and even a Christmas decor shop. At the end of the main street there was even a gorgeous church, the St. Mathews Catholic Parish.

After a few stops at some American stores like Target, TJ Maxx, and the classic Walmart, we headed to our campsite in Columbia Falls. While K was catching up on keeping our parents informed about our daily adventures, I took advantage of some free time to change out the stereo in Bea. K, sneaky as always, took this video of me while I maneuvered the cords around the dash.

Unfortunately the stereo I had was too big for the dash, so I put the old one back in and cleaned up my mess while K made supper. We had delicious home (or Van) made mac and cheese.

It was getting chilly outside so we relaxed on the van, reading and catching up on social media before drifting off to sleep.